“Why aren’t they wrecking?”: NASCAR insiders complain of "too easy" Next Gen racing following Bristol

NASCAR insiders TJ Majors, Freddie Kraft, and Brett Griffin criticized the "too easy" driveability of the NextGen car. Despite having the "exact same" Goodyear compound as the regular season race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Round-of-16 elimination on the 'World's Fastest Half Mile' had an unexpected tire fall-off.

The Bass Pro Shops Night Race was triumphed by Kyle Larson. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion led 462 laps of the 500-lap elimination battle to punch his ticket for the Round of 12. But several drivers struggled on the track.

Many cars failed to overtake the rival as the Goodyear tire didn't wear as expected. The most recent example is Martin Truex Jr., who couldn't resurge to the front after getting a pit lane speeding penalty in the final stage. He finished 24th and failed to advance to the Kansas race.

While discussing the race on the podcast "Door Bumper Clear", NASCAR insiders dug deeper into the probable causes of the uneventful night. They included Bubba Wallace's spotter Freddie Kraft, Brad Keselowski's spotter TJ Majors, and Brett Griffin, who recently spotted for Austin Dillon in three races when Brandon Benesch was suspended for asking Dillon to "wreck" Denny Hamlin in Richmond.

"To be the exact same tire, there's something way off here somewhere," Majors said.

"Denny (Hamlin) said that the teams would get better and make them (compounds) last longer. You think he meant another 130 laps?" Kraft asked.

"I don't and honestly it's probably more than 130 laps," Majors replied.

"Oh yeah. We could have ran for like whenever until we ran out of gas," Kraft said.

"I had a enormous amount of texting me that are buddies of mine, saying that, 'This is awful.' And the ones that were there in the stands Tweeting, 'This is awful,' are the ones I feel the worst for because they're thousands of dollars into that trip," Griffin said. "There were how many wrecks at Bristol?"

"Not enough," Majors answered.

"Cars are too easy to drive, why aren't they wrecking? I don't go to the racetrack to watch wrecks, but wrecks happen when guys run out of talent, and wrecks happen when cars are out of control and when you go to a place like that, with that many vehicles (37), on a track that small, you don't have wrecks. It's telling you something, all you gotta do is look at it, the cars are too easy to drive," Griffin said.

Goodyear representatives are yet to unveil the exact cause of unexpectedly low tire fall-off.

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Denny Hamlin blames Goodyear tires for its inability to "create passing" at NASCAR elimination race

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin entered the 500-lapper below the playoff cutline but kept himself among the frontrunners. He bagged a fourth place and locked his place in the Round of 12.

However, Hamlin and other drivers suffered from low tire fall-off compared to the previous race at Bristol, where the compound lasted approximately 50 laps. In the Round of 16 finale, the tires stretched over 125 laps, and due to less wear, fresh rubber couldn't gel with the underlying asphalt, and the NextGen cars struggled to overtake.

The 54-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner presented the math of tire fall-off and expressed his "passing" concern. He said (via Dirty Mo Media):

"The leaders could run 15.50 (seconds) and they ended the run almost 100 laps later, running like 16.20s. So seven-tenths over 100 laps. If you're not first, second, or third, your lap time fall-off was four-tenths. It's just not enough to create passing."

Hamlin will enter the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 12 with a 7-point cushion over the cutline.